The cavalcade of handheld gaming devices has increased dramatically over the past few years, and with the launch of the ROG Xbox ALLY X in Australia last month, Microsoft is staking their claim for an Xbox portable.
Powered by the latest silicon from AMD, the ROG XBOX ALLY X is the more powerful of the two gaming handhelds announced by ASUS in partnership with Microsoft.
The partnership motto is emblazoned on the Microsoft site, with a pretty big claim of XBOX anywhere:
XBOX, ANYWHERE. Power of Xbox. Freedom of Windows. Craftmanship of ROG.
It’s a big claim for Microsoft, with Xbox fans having clamoured for a portable XBOX experience for years and it’s not going to come cheap either.
At $1,699, the ROG Xbox ALLY X represents the best mobile experience for Xbox, while the $999 ROG Xbox ALLY gives gamers a more affordable option with Microsoft’s new immersive Xbox full screen experience on both systems, designed to be more user-friendly and optimise the system for gaming.
While they have all the Xbox branding, these are Windows 11 based gaming machines, so of course Steam, GOG, EPIC and more are all ready to go.
ASUS have sent over the ROG XBOX ALLY X for review, so we’re looking at what the best of the best can do. I’ve previously checked out the ROG ALLY X last year, which was a great device, and now with Microsoft behind it, and a new updated processor, it’s time to see if this lives up to the hype.
The ROG ALLY X was a great bit of kit last year which refined the previous generation, but with Microsoft on-board the design has taken a clear direction and it’s good.
The ROG XBOX ALLY X looks just like a display with halves of an Xbox controller on either end, and it really just works. If you’re familiar with an Xbox controller, picking up the ROG XBOX ALLY X just feels like home – it’s that comfortable.
It’s an XBOX controller layout, so you have off-set thumbsticks with ABXY buttons on the right, with the prominent Xbox button, and D-Pad on the left. The triggers and bumpers at the top feel just like the controller – and the only real difference is the M1 and M2 buttons on the rear which can be configured manually.
You get the View, Menu, Command Centre and Library buttons clustered around the display, giving you fast access to both in-game controls and controls for Armoury Crate and more.
It is by far the most comfortable handheld gaming device I’ve held – and I got to check out most of the new handheld gaming devices at Computex this year.
The ROG XBOX partnership is ingrained into the device itself, with tiny letters spelling out the brands vertically making up the texture on the device.
The base of the ROG XBOX ALLY X is flat – and while I can see why it makes sense to have another USB-C port here perhaps for charging, it also very much makes it sit very nicely in the provided cardboard stand.
The top layout hasn’t changed from the ROG ALLY X, with the fingerprint sensor enabled power button, 3.5mm jack and microSD card slot on the right with volume controls and dual USB-C (USB-C 3.2 and a USB4) ports on the right, all easily accessible with your fingers while in-game.
The dual USB-C ports support Power Delivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 2.1 output so you can charge and even output video at the same time.
I actually plugged a USB dock in, allowing video, charging etc. through one port, but for pure bandwidth sake using two gives you more options – and I’m here for options.
AMD have supplied the latest silicone for the XBOX ROG ALLY X with a Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor, 24GB of DDR5 RAM with a 1TB Gen 4 M.2 SSD on-board.
The step up in processor on the XBOX ROG ALLY X gives you some solid updates on performance, the boot speed to get into the Xbox launcher is just under 25 seconds, and there’s also improvements across a range of games over the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme from the ROG ALLY X.
For AI aficionados, Microsoft lists that ‘Neural processing unit (NPU) with exclusive AI-powered features’ is coming soon – so there’s that, though it may offer some interesting advancements for gaming when it comes in.
In terms of gaming, it’s solid. XBox games like Grounded 2 getting solid Hollow Knight clocked in at 120fps (and I’m now addicted), while games like Cyberpunk 2077, Crysis Remastered and more gave solid 50-70fps in Windows mode.
I can’t show every game I played, because I’ve been playing a lot – apologies boss! I did run it through 3DMark to get an idea of how the new processor stands, and here’s how it did
The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X features the same 7-inch, 1080p resolution IPS display that ASUS launched on the original ROG ALLY back in 2023.
There’s nothing wrong with the display, in fact it works quite well. The IPS panel ticks all the boxes, it has great viewing angles, colour reproduction is great and it’s super smooth thanks to AMD FreeSync and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) which can support up to 120Hz.
But the point stands, the display is the same one that’s been used on the original ROG ALLY and then the ROG ALLY X, and the competition is moving forward, with the likes of Lenovo with the Legion Go2, MSI with the Claw A8 or ACER with the Blaze Nitro all offering either a step up to a larger display, or an OLED panel – or both, so while the display is good, it could be great – and ASUS can do excellent OLED panels which we see on their laptops.
If you want a larger display you can use the USB4 port which I did simply through a USB-C dock that offers HDMI out. I was also able to add my USB dongle to the hub so I got mouse and keyboard support on the big screen as well.
The display is decent inside, thanks to the 500nits brightness, however even that isn’t enough when you head outdoors with the glossy display picking up quite a few reflections and not quite powering through the glare.
ASUS are promising an ‘enhanced docking mode supporting big-screen gaming with optimised display output’ is coming soon – so we’ll see more on that front down the track. For now though, you can certainly just plug the ROG Xbox ALLY X into a TV or monitor for big screen gaming.
There’s an 80WHr, 4-cell Li-ion battery inside the ROG XBOX ALLY X, with a 65W charger included in the box.
In terms of battery life, we’ve seen improvements over the generations with the last ROG ALLY X lasting around two hours on Turbo. The improvements in the AMD processor sees an increase again, I played over 5 hours of Hollow Knight, 3 hours on Call of Duty 7 and it was awesome.
A key feature for me is the standby time. Finding time to game as an adult with responsibilities means you find time where you can, so being able to pick up a game when I can is key.
While I had issues with stand-by time on the ROG ALLY X last year, the ROG XBOX ALLY X with the backing of Microsoft has great standby time. Just leaving it for three days I saw only a 12% drop in battery life – and it was simply sleeping, so I picked it up, pressed the power button and launched a game within a few seconds. Not bad.
As far as charging goes, the 65W charger included in the box will get you to full in a little over an hour and a half, while a 100W charger may get you there slightly faster.
The ROG XBOX ALLY X is an Xbox according to Microsoft – and it is, but there are a lot of caveats to that statement, so let’s dive in.
It’s running Windows 11, with version 25H2, a recent Windows release launched on September 30. This version will receive updates through to the 10th of October 2028 – but you’ll likely be updated to the annual Windows release before then.
Despite the Xbox controller grips, the Xbox button and booting into the Xbox Experience, this is Windows, so you can of course install any digital store front like Steam, GOG, EPIC and more. It is however, as you’d expect from the branding, heavily geared towards the Xbox experience.
To start, it’s a super pleasant experience to just boot straight into the new immersive Xbox full screen experience without having to deal with Windows.
The Xbox full screen experience is brilliant, showing all your Xbox library, as well as any games you have installed from other game stores like Steam, GOG, Epic etc. It’s a great interface, however it is also similar to what ASUS were already offering on Armoury Crate, showing all your games installed.
The ROG Xbox ALLY X also has software modifications to minimise background activity, as well as offering a vastly improved standby time. If you do switch to Windows, then switch back, you are strongly encouraged to ‘enter the full Screen experience’ and a restart of the system is required for optimal experience.
There’s also the dedicated Xbox button which gives you the familiar enhanced Game Bar overlay. From here you can browse your library, launch or quit games, chat with friends, as well as adjust settings or access ROG’s innovative Armoury Crate software for more advanced device and input controls – all without having to leave your game.
Having Microsoft on-board for the ROG XBOX ALLY X means you also get an improved Windows experience which are tailored for handhelds, so navigating screens, entering your pin on a virtual pin pad, or even just switching apps using a controller friendly interface is a massive improvement.
The experience as an Xbox is good for the most part, the interface looking like what you’d see on your Xbox console – but there’s a few finicky things when it comes to compatibility and playing some of your games. The main factor for me is Game Pass, which opens so many doors when it comes to available games, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Unlike your Xbox Series X, you can’t load discs onto the ROG XBOX ALLY X, so you’re dependent on the title existing on the Xbox store digitally in order to play it – or you can stream the game from your Xbox console using Remote Play
If your title is available digitally, you can either purchase it, at which point you’ll find it will likely have one of the ‘Play Anywhere’ tags, indicating it’s one of the more than 1,000 games that are ready to go on handhelds.
Microsoft has implemented a Handheld Compatibility Program for their digital library, with tags added like ‘Handheld Optimised’, or ‘Mostly Compatible’ to let you know if a game is ready to jump in on your ROG Xbox ALLY X or it may need some adjustments.
I don’t have a lot of games I’ve purchased over the years, but the only one that wasn’t able to be installed was Green Hell – but I also own it on Steam, so that wasn’t an issue for me – but it may be an issue for you, so it does pay to do your homework for your own library.
You can check to see what games in your library won’t be compatible, by going to your ‘Owned Games’ tab on your Xbox – or in the Xbox app and setting the filter ‘Capabilities’ to ‘Xbox Play Anywhere’ – or head to Xbox Play Anywhere to browse the list of titles. There’s over 1,600 titles listed as ‘Play Anywhere’ compatible, however there’s over 15,000 titles on the Xbox Store itself, so there’s still a lot of disparity here, even allowing for cloud streaming.
This may get a little annoying for some as you find there are games not available to install, or if you just picked up a ROG XBOX ALLY X – but the one big Ace up Microsoft’s sleeve though is Game Pass. Game Pass gives players access to hundreds of games you can play if you pay the monthly fee.
In the lead-up to the launch of the ROG Xbox ALLY X, Microsoft made changes to their Game Pass subscriptions, which now start .95 per month, scaling all the way up to Game Pass Ultimate for .95 per month – with all of the plans now supporting PC installs, which you’ll need for the ROG Xbox ALLY X.
There’s a 3-month trial of Xbox Game Pass Premium included with the ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbox ALLY – which is a great way to check out all the new games and see how easy it is to game with Microsoft – if you pay the monthly subscription.
Having Game Pass means games like Call of Duty 7, Outer Worlds 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Grounded 2 and loads more, are simply there to install – or you can just stream them directly to the handheld through Xbox Cloud Gaming if your bandwidth is sufficient.
I recently updated to a 1GB broadband plan, which allows for excellent game streaming from Xbox Cloud Gaming and at that speed it just works, even on a mobile hotspot using Telstra 5G it was a pretty good experience just streaming.
This isn’t indicative of an experience for everyone. Microsoft themselves recommend a decent connection:
“Best performance will be achieved at rates of 10 Mbps on mobile devices, 20 Mbps on consoles, PCs and tablets and 5GHz WiFi or mobile data connection.”
So, your mileage may vary on that front.
Once your Game Pass trial runs out, it’s really up to you to find games on Xbox to play if the games in your library aren’t compatible with the Play Anywhere solution. But there are other games to play on the ROG Xbox ALLY X – though as my son found out when he logged in using his account, there isn’t a lot there if you haven’t purchased anything.
Armoury Crate
I’ve been a bit of a fan of ASUS’ Armoury Crate software on their laptops, and it’s also been great as a launcher on their ALLY handhelds as well.
The Armoury Crate home software is easily navigable on the ROX XBOX ALLY X using the thumbsticks or even touch screen. The app can be launched from the Command Centre button near the display at any time, and lets you adjust settings, control modes, the RGB lighting around the thumbsticks, monitor your system and of course access all the games.
The Armoury Crate launcher is great, and you can see any games from any digital store front you have installed, making it quite easy to jump into your favourite game regardless of where you bought it.
I do have one favourite feature from the Armoury Crate quick menu that I need to shout out: the Real Time Monitor, which enables an overlay showing FPS and system info – something Microsoft’s Game Bar is a little hesitant to do.
While the ROG XBOX ALLY X is all about Xbox, of course jumping into Windows mode is easy, and so is installing any of your digital store fronts. From Steam, GOG Galaxy and Epic to Ubisoft Connect, EA, Battle.net – if it runs on Windows, you can install it.
The only thing I did to make the installation process easy for these was to connect a keyboard and mouse through a USB-C hub. You can use the on-screen Windows keyboard and combo of touch display and thumb controls to navigate, but it’s a lot faster with a keyboard and mouse.
Once you install these games, you can use either the Armoury Crate or Xbox Launcher to access these games, or switch into Windows and launch them there.
All in all, it’s very easy to do any of it. Even install Chrome, much to Windows chagrin.
The ASUS ROG XBOX ALLY X represents a decent portable Xbox with a list of caveats when you look at game compatibility, but as a portable gaming machine, it’s a beast.
The updated Xbox Series Controller inspired design is brilliant. It makes the device comfortable to hold for hours at a time – and you will be gaming on this for hours at a time thanks to Microsoft coming through on Windows optimisations for both perrformance and power, making the system super smooth and also able to last longer and standby for good amounts of time.
For Xbox players the experience is a good one if you’re subscribed to Game Pass – or have a large array of your library supporting the Play Anywhere option. If you don’t, it’s a bit of a let down in terms of being an Xbox – and our library of Xbox discs is effectively useless here.
As a Windows11 gaming machine though it’s brilliant. The performance of the new AMD processor, combined with Xbox or ASUS Armoury Crate launchers as a game hub means you can access all your gaming stores with ease and launch games pretty easily across the board without having to interact with Windows – even if that experience has also improved.
All in all, it’s a handheld that offers so much versatility for mobile gamers, that the 99 price tag is worth it to keep a high-performance gaming machine with you at all times.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
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